Floor scrubbing appliance



July 7, 1959 J. R.STRONG FLOOR SCRUBBING APPLIANCE v 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed June 22, 1956 'IIIgII/IIA INVENTOR. JOY 2.S-flzou&

ATTORNEYS y 7, 1959 J. R. STRONG 2,893,037

FLOOR SCRUBBING APPLIANCE Filed June 22, 1956 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. 3i JOY R.S-nzou -:r BY

ATT O 2 M EHS This invention relates to a scrubbing appliance, and more particularly has reference to a device of this nature adapted: to be used to advantage in scrubbing; a floor or "other surface by the combined efiiects of a power-driven,

rotary brush, acontinuous cycling'of' water, and a centrifugal action as said water is fed radially, outwardly of the brush in spiralling paths during operation" of the device'.-

' Summarized: briefly, the invention includes a reservoir for liquid, mounted upon a downwardly flaring housing, at the: lower end of which there is provided a depending,

annular skirt formed with an inwardly, upwardly directed flange to define throughout the marginal area of the skirt a trough, through which water is fed toa pumpeflective 'for returning the water to the reservoir.

I Rotating within the depending flange o'r' skirt portion is a d'ownwardlyop'ening brush holder, driven by a suitablemotor, which motor is also used to power the pump.

The brush holder is closed at its lower end by a rotary brush, having aplurality of spi'rally extending channels, the walls ofwhich are so' designed as" to cause said channels' to" trap Water that is directed radially, outwardly by centrifugal action during rotation of the brush; The

water, after being so trapped, flows out of the brush holder into the previously mentionedttrough, for recycling. When the water has been returned to the reservoir, it

flows downwardly from the reservoir through a centrally disposed-tube, opening at its lower end upon the center area of'thebrush. this way, on operation of the -motor' and movement of the appliance. over a floor or other surface, the brush. is rotated at high" speed, and Water is continuously cycled through the appliance, passing through the brush by c'entrifh'gal action, to be trapped and returned to the reservoir;

Oneobject of importance is toprovi de a device of the character described that will have a combined flushing,

cleaning, and scrubbingaction upon a floor" surface.

5 Another object is to" provide said scrubbing action by the use of a continuous how of" water; while still; not requiring that thewater be continuously fed to the apparatus from an external source.

Another. object is to provide the above: described action whilestill' utilizing a relatively small quantity of water.

' Yet another'objectist'o provide an improved scrubbing action deriving from the combination. of a rotary brush 'wi'tlr centrifugally directed water fed to the brush during operation of the device. 4 Yet another object is' to provide a device of the characterstated that will be relatively simply designed', will be compact, will be capable of being moved over a floor or other surface with maximum ease and with little strain oreifort' so faras the user'is concerned, will have a particularly effective scrubbing action, and willtbe designed to facilitate the cleaning of relatively inaccessible surfaces, such as those in the corners of roomsor other I structures;

Other objects will" appear from the following description; the claims appended thereto; and from the annexed United States Patent drawing, in which like reference characters designate like parts throughout the several views, and wherein:

Figure 1 is a top plan view of a floor scrubbing appliance according to the invention;

Figure 2 is a longitudinal section on line 2--2. of Figure 1;

Figure 3 is an enlarged bottom plan view;

Figure 4 is a still further enlarged detail section on line 4-4 of Figure 3; and

Figure 5 is a detail section on the same scale as Figure 4, on line 5-5 of Figure 4.

A circular drum housing includes a flat plate 10 integral at its periphery with a depending, cylindrical flange 12. Flange 12 terminates a short distance above the surface S to be cleaned, and extends about and encloses a rotary drum 14, having a flat plate disposed in closely spaced relation to and below the plate of the drum housing 10. The drum 14', at its periphery, is integral with a depending sidewall 16, and as will be noted from Figure 2 and also from Figure 4, the side wall 16 tapers in a downward direction, being of a frusto-conical shape, thus to progressively reduce the diameter of the rotary drum 14 in a direction toward the bottom edge thereof.

Integrally or otherwise rigidly connected to the inner surface of the flange 12 is an inwardly projecting, circumferentially extending lip defining a trough 18, the inner periphery of which is inclined upwardly toward the plane of the plate 10, so that the drum housing is provided with an internal, annular trough, for a purpose to be made presently apparent.

Immediately above the inner periphery of the trough 18, the side wall 16 is formed with a circumferential series of outlet ports 20, so that water following the direction of the arrows in Figure 4 will pass through the outlet ports, into the trough, in a manner to be fully described hereinafter.

A center opening is formed in the drum housing, and fixedly engaged in said opening is a bearing sleeve 22, in which is journalled a tubular shaft 24. the lower end portion of which passes through a center opening in a flat, relatively thick backing plate 26 of a rotary brush generally designated at 27. Shaft 24' is fixedly secured to the backing plate 26 for. rotating the same, and the lower'extremity of the shaft is formed with an outwardly directed, circumferential flange 28 seating in a recess of a circular, relatively thick. brush member 30 formed of. any suitable material readily pervious to the passage of water therethrough and adapted to apply a scrubbing action'to the surface S. Thus, the material of the brush member 30 can be bristles, a sponge, etc., and except as necessarily required by the appended claims, it is not desired to limit the invention unduly by requiring any specific Water-pervious, brush material. The brush includes shaft 24, plate 26, and brush member 30 asits component parts.

Referring now to Figure 3, and also to Figure 2, formed in the brush member 30 are spirally extending slots 31 regularly spaced about the center of the brush. The slots 31 have their inner ends spaced closely from the center post or shaft 24 of the brush 27, while the outer ends of the slots terminate close to the outer periphery of the brush member, and are trailing in respect to the inner ends of the slots, in the sense of direction of rotation of the brush. As a result, water fed through the shaft 24 into the recess 29 will, on high speed rotation of the brush member, be directed outwardly through the material of the brush and. along the surface S, and will for the most part find its way into the slots 31, by centrifugal force. In this connection, the outer walls of the slots are provided with a sheet-like liner 32,. impervious to the passage of water, so that any water finding its way into a particular slot is prevented from passing the slot and will instead therefor.

which aid in the passage of the water upwardly within the slots, so that said water ultimately passes into passages 34 formed in the backing plate 26. The passages 34 are formed as an annular series of small openings pitched when viewed in cross section correspondingly to the slots as shown to best advantage in Figures 2 and 4.

In the outer periphery of the brush member there are formed closely spaced recesses 36 communicating with correspondingly spaced peripheral recesses 38 of the backing plate 26. Reces-ses 36, 38'are regularly spaced through the full circumferences of the brush member and backing plate and are adapted to catch any water that may evade the slots, while being directed outwardly through the material of the brush member by centrifugal action.

For the purpose of rotating the brush 27 and its associated drum 14, a pulley 39 is secured by a set screw or equivalent means to the upper extremity of shaft 24, and

trained thereabout is a drive belt 40, lying in a horizontal plane and trained about a smaller, drive pulley 42 rotatable with a vertically disposed motor shaft 44 extending downwardly from an electric motor 46, mounted upon an angular bracket 48 formed with a horizontal leg 50 secured to the plate of the drum housing.

At its lower end, the shaft 44 extends into a pump, having meshing gears 52 formed with teeth 54 wiping over the inner surface of pump housing 56 mounted upon and projecting outwardly from the depending flange 12 of the drum housing 10. Pump housing 56 is formed (see Figure 2) with an inlet 58 communicating with trough 18, so that water forced into the trough through ports: 20 by centrifugal action will travel to the pump. It will be understood, in this connection, that the pump is per se conventional, and connected to the output of the pump is a hose 60 shown to best advantage in Figures 1 and 2.

- Connected to bracket 48, at a location spaced outwardly from the periphery of the drum housing, is a caster 62, and also connected to the bracket 48 is a segmentally shaped handle mounting bracket 64 having transversely spaced walls between which is located the inner extremity of an elongated handle 66. Handle 66 is pivotally connected to the bracket 64, and the walls of the bracket 64 are formed with arcuate series of openings 68 any of which may be registered with a transverse opening of handle 66, to permit the extension of a drop pin 69 through the selected, registering openings. In this way, the handle can be swung upwardly or downwardly, and can be releasably locked in selected positions to which it is swung, according to the desires of the user. The drop pin 69 is connected to a chain 70 to prevent loss thereof, said chain being connected to the handle 66.

Secured to and projecting upwardly from the drum housing 10 is an upwardly tapering reservoir support housing or casing 72. This covers the full area of the drum housing, and at its trailing side is integrally formed with a radially, outwardly projecting, downwardly opening ex tension 74 housing the drive pulley 42.

Integrally formed upon the smaller, upper end of the reservoir support housing 72 in an inwardly directed, circumferentially extending flange or shoulder 76, angularly related when viewed in cross section to the top edge portion of the housing 72, to define a correspondingly shaped, circumferentially extending recess for a short rubber gasket 78 on which is seated a circular reservoir 80.

The reservoir is removably supported upon the reservoir support housing 7 2, the gasket providing a cushioned seat Removal of the reservoir facilitates cleaning and emptying and to this end, the reservoir has'a filler opening normally closed by a screw cap 81." j

In the flat top wall of the reservoir 80 there is formed a threaded center opening, engaging threads provided upon the upper end portion of a vertically disposed valve stem 82, the upper extremity of which projects above the top of the reservoir and is provided with a knob to facilitate manual rotation of the same. To the lower extremity of the stem 82 there is secured an upwardly tapering valve 84, adapted to seat against a depending neck formed upon the bottom wall of the reservoir and extending to the upper end of the shaft 24. The valve can be closed whenever the device is out of operation, to prevent loss of water, but when the device is in operation, the valve is opened to a selected extent. By adjusted positioning of the valve, the quantity and rate of flow of water through the neck 85 into the shaft 24 can be controlled as desired, and can be properly related to the output of the pump in a manner such as to control to' a selected degree the velocity of the water forced downwardly through the shaft 24. In other words, if the valve 84 is so positioned that the outlet of the reservoir is smaller in total area than the inlet thereof defined by the opening'through which water is fed into the reservoir from the hose 60, with the pump operating to pump more water into the reservoir than would normally flow freely out of the neck 85, the

'velocity of the water as it travels downwardly within the shaft 24 will be increased.

The backing plate 26 is spaced downwardly a substantial distance from the top plate of the drum 14, thus defining between the backing plate and the drum a chamber 86.

In operation of the device, when the motor is turned on, the shaft 24 will be rotated at a rate of speed that may be predetermined by the manufacturer, and as a result, with the valve in open position water will flow downwardly within the shaft 24 into the recess 29. Due to the centrifugal action of the rotary motion of the brush, said water, as it enters the material of the water-pervious brush member 30, will travel upwardly toward the periphery of the brush member, to cooperate with the brush member in scrubbing the floor surface S. The water will then pass upwardly within the slots 31 through the annular series of outlets 34 provided in the backing plate 26, and such water as does not find its way into the slots 31 will, for the most part, travel upwardly within the recesses 36, 38 at the periphery of the brush.

The water traveling upwardly within the recesses 38 and ports 34 will enter the chamber 86, and due to the inclination of the side walls 16 of the drum, will travel upwardly as shown by the arrows in Figure 2, to pass through the outlets 20 of the drum into the trough 18.

The water will thus be continuously fed to the input of the pump, and will be acted upon the pump in such a manner as to be pumped upwardly through the hose 60 into the reservoir, for recycling.

Of course, the details of construction may be varied, so that the downward flow of the water from the reservoir to the floor surface may be entirely by gravity, without any impetus given thereto. It is mainly important to note that the construction involves a rotary brush so designed that water will be fed to the center of the brush, to enter water-pervious material of the brush and be directed by centrifugal action toward the brush periphery, cooperating with the brush to clean the surface S, said water being fed, due to the particular formation of the brush, back to a pump to be recycled.

The invention has the highly desirable characteristic in that it is not necessary to connect the device to a source of water under pressure, thereby promoting the which the brush is moving, then utilized to clean the floor surface in cooperation with a scrubbing action of a rotary brush member, and then picked up after it has discharged its function, to be recycled for the purpose of repeating the function. The floor is thus not left excessively wet, and at the same time there is a marked saving of water as well as the ability to use the device on any surface area that needs to be cleaned, regardless of the proximity or remoteness of said area in respect to a source of Water.

It is believed apparent that the invention is not necessarily confined to the specific use or uses thereof described above, since it may be utilized for any purpose to which it may be suited. Nor is the invention to be necessarily limited to the specific construction illustrated and described, since such construction is only intended to be illustrative of the principles, it being considered that the invention comprehends any minor change in construction that may be permitted within the scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

l. A rotary brush for a floor-washing appliance, comprising: a fiat, horizontal backing plate having a center opening; a vertical tubular shaft engaged in said center opening and having a lower end projecting below the backing plate; a brush member secured to the underside of the backing plate and formed of a material pervious to water, the lower end of the shaft terminating above the underside of the brush member and the brush member having in its underside a center recess with which the shaft communicates at said lower end thereof, the brush member having a series of slots regularly spaced about said center recess and extending through the full thickness of the brush member, the backing plate having passages extending through the full thickness thereof in communication with the slots, the slots having inner ends spaced closely from the shaft and outer ends terminating close to the outer periphery of the brush member, the inner ends leading the outer ends in the sense of the direction of rotation of the brush, the slots being inclined, when viewed in cross section, obliquely to the axis of rotation of the brush member, in a direction such that the tops of the slots are radially spaced from said axis a greater distance than are the bottoms thereof, some at least of the passages being inclined correspondingly to the slots; and water-impervious liners covering one wall of the slots, said one wall of the several slots being those that are nearer the brush member periphery.

2. A rotary brush for a floor-washing appliance, comprising: a flat, horizontal backing plate having a center opening; a vertical tubular shaft engaged in said center opening and having a lower end projecting below the backing plate; a brush member secured to the underside of the backing plate and formed of a material pervious to water, the lower end of the shaft terminating above the underside of the brush member and the brush member having in its underside a center recess with which the shaft communicates at said lower end thereof, the brush member having a series of slots regularly spaced about said center recess and extending through the full thickness of the brush member, the backing plate having passages extending through the full thickness thereof in communication with the slots, the slots having inner ends spaced closely from the shaft and outer ends terminating close to the outer periphery of the brush member, the inner ends leading the outer ends in the sense of the direction of rotation of the brush, the slots being inclined, when viewed in cross section, obliquely to the axis of rotation of the brush member, in a direction such that the tops of the slots are radially spaced from said axes a greater distance than are the bottoms thereof, some at least of the passages being inclined correspondingly to the slots; water-impervious liners covering one wall of the slots, said one wall of the several slots being those that are nearer the brush member periphery; and a drum extending about the backing plate and brush member, including a flat top plate in a plane parallel to and spaced upwardly from the backing plate to define therebetween -a chamber with which said passages communicate, and a depending side wall of inverted frustoconical shape at the top plate periphery enclosing said chamber and formed at the top of the chamber with a circumferential series of outlet ports, the side wall having an inclination in a direction generally corresponding to that of the slots to provide a slope extending upwardly outwardly from the brush axis to the outlet ports, for initial passage of water upwardly outwardly from said axis up slopes defined by the liners followed by passage of the Water up the first named slope, said backing plate and brush member having registering peripheral recesses, the backing plate recesses communicating with the chamber at the bottom of the first named slope to provide auxiliary passages for catching, and directing to the first named slope, water that evades the slots while being directed outwardly by centrifugal action through the material of the brush member.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,211,948 Koster et al. Ian. 9, 1917 2,003,216 Nadig May 28, 1935 2,153,207 Petty Apr. 4, 1939 2,495,686 Berberian Jan. 31, 1950 2,633,595 Berberian Apr. 7, 1953 2,680,260 Danielsson et al. June 8, 1954 2,774,089 Brown Dec. 18, 1956 FOREIGN PATENTS 150,940 Australia Apr. 17, 1953 673,183 Great Britain June 4, 1952 

